AccuWeather has started rolling out an update for its Windows 10 UWP app, bearing the gift of feature parity with the iOS and Android apps.

The latest update adds ‘AccUcast’ to the Windows 10 app – the feature lets users of AccuWeather submit their local weather conditions, which would then be aggregated and displayed on a fancy dedicated map.

It’s crowdsourced weather reports – all you need is an account, and you can submit your local weather data to AccUcast; user submissions appear on the AccUcast map in real-time, so there is no delay either.

The Griefers

Crowd-sourced weather data isn’t a bad idea – except, the way AccuWeather is doing it can turn into a mess, quick. The real-time nature of weather submissions means that there is little oversight and moderation in regards to these submissions – sure, AccuWeather might be able to detect a ‘mass-attack’ on the accuracy of their data, but individual submissions would most likely be unverifiable.

If you submit the weather with your location right now – it will be added to the map for everyone around the world, and there is no way to delete it, at least from within the app.

This gets even worse when you realize that users are not only able to report the weather, but also hazards – the traffic app ‘Waze’ does something similar for road accidents, but traffic situations are easier to verify with all the sensors modern cities have these days.

Availability

Despite its apparent flaws, the feature has been around since July of 2015 without any controversy – so perhaps it works.

The AccuWeather app is available for Windows 10 on PC and mobile, along with Xbox One, and Windows Holographic – all via the Windows Store. The benefits of being a UWP app are visible.